The Wall Street JournalMay 5, 2022

Global emissions from burning of coal, oil, natural gas are ‘on the wrong track,’ NOAA scientist says

By Nidhi Subbaraman

The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a record high in April, according to measurements of the heat-trapping gas at an observatory high on Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano. The level during the month averaged 420 parts per million, scientists said Thursday.

“This is the highest we’ve ever seen” since contemporaneous monitoring of atmospheric carbon dioxide began 64 years ago, Pieter Tans, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Monitoring Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., said of the record. The past record at Mauna Loa was set last May, at 419 parts per million.

The uptick is part of a continuing decades-long rise in atmospheric carbon-dioxide levelsdriven by the burning of coal and other fossil fuels, according to the chemical…